Plastic ingestion and dispersion by vultures may produce plastic islands in natural areas.

Autor: Ballejo F; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA- CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, R8400FRF San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. Electronic address: fernandoballejo@gmail.com., Plaza P; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA- CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, R8400FRF San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina., Speziale KL; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA- CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, R8400FRF San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina., Lambertucci AP; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA- CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, R8400FRF San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina., Lambertucci SA; Grupo de Investigaciones en Biología de la Conservación, INIBIOMA- CONICET, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Quintral 1250, R8400FRF San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2021 Feb 10; Vol. 755 (Pt 1), pp. 142421. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Sep 21.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142421
Abstrakt: Rubbish dumps can become an important environmental source of plastic. Several species feed on organic waste from these sites, but at the same time are exposed to non-organic materials. Species that can gather food in these sites might at the same time disperse waste consumed, but this has rarely been evaluated. We compare the occurrence of plastic debris in regurgitated pellets of three sympatric vultures from northwest Patagonia, Andean condors (Vultur gryphus), black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and turkey vultures (Cathartes aura), foraging in different degrees of humanized sites. We also evaluate the influence of rubbish dumps in the presence of plastic debris in pellets of the studied species and their potential role in spreading plastic to the environment. Most synthetic material present in pellets was plastic. Pellets of Andean condors, which avoid disturbed anthropic sites in this area, showed almost no plastic debris compared with the other sympatric vulture species, suggesting an influence of the foraging habits on plastic ingestion. For black and turkey vultures, we found that rubbish dumps may be an important source of plastic. The occurrence of plastic debris in pellets of black vultures sampled in 2010 and 2020 increased, probably associated with the increase in urbanization and waste production in the study area. Avian scavengers were exposed to and are able to transport plastic to distant communal roosts generating "plastic islands". It is necessary to reduce plastic generation and better waste management practices to avoid species and environments to be affected by this pollutant.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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